Article source: Arte Charpentier Architectes & CALQ Architecture
A new urban space open to the city. This project for restructuring an existing shopping centre built in 1977 responds to issues surrounding urban and landscape requalification and fits within a plan to redevelop the east side of the city. More than a shopping centre, the project involved creating a new urban space that attracts people to meet and visit, and that contributes to the expansion and enhancement of Cherbourg-Octeville.
This is the first international arts institution in the US devoted entirely to the performing arts and theatrical design. The site is in the heart of the museum district of San Francisco and our objective is to create an iconic piece of architecture that reflects the international focus of the institute and its stature as a world-class museum. Mikhail Baryshnikov agreed to collaborate with us as part of the design team. He has extensive technical knowledge and design skills relating to the design as well as the exhibit portrayals.
Originally built in 1935 by the Federally funded Works Progress Administration (WPA) program, this 4,500-seat outdoor amphitheater is located in a dramatic ravine overlooking Santa Barbara. It provides a full range of music shows, including classical, pop, country-western, blues, jazz and rock and roll. In the 1980’s, changing performance requirements, the impact of amplified sound and traffic, and increased residential density surrounding the amphitheater led the County Parks Department to undertake a master plan to address these challenges. Through an interactive community workshop process, Handel Architects was selected to lead a design team to create a detailed master plan to address each of the major issues. This master plan has served as a blueprint for all subsequent maintenance and operational endeavors, fundraising plans for capital improvements, and also served to minimize ad-hoc changes that had occurred in the past.
This architecture consists of a second house with garage and two studio-type apartment units for rent. Our client asked me to design architecture similar to “Reflection of Mineral” that we completed in 2006. Therefore basic concepts of ‘Mineral’ are taken into consideration. And in order to further evolve from our previous design we focus on the following three issues: (1) Form should be carefully considered in order to protect white walls from dirt from rainwater. (2) Design and detailing of large skylight (3) Selection of materials to minimize cost.
Article source: Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
New head office of Cartier firm in Paris Saint-Honoré district. The offices are articulated around a courtyard.The main street, Rue du Faubourg, provides three entry points into the interior courtyard. The façades are made of clear and serigraphed glass; the paving is Pietra Serena. The programme includes offices, shops, a showroom, a restaurant and a bar, a multi-purpose hall, a gymnasium and parking space below grade for 450 vehicles.
The municipality of Wemmel , situated on the outskirts of Brussels, is well known for its green areas with their monumental villas of the upper class. After a search of several years, the principal saw a house situated in one of those quarters. It was not his dream house but because of its marvellous location and the south orientated garden, he decided to buy it.
The land dominates the context defining factors: the orientation of the houses, favorable for every day life is obviously towards South, yet the slope which offers the view of the town in the valley and the faraway mountains descends to the North. The project assumes this contradiction and organizes the living space around the South-West facing terrace up the slope; the terrace is partially shaded from East and West and its position is vaguely reminiscent of the traditional household, organized around the yard.
A social place, a space for culture and knowledge.
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
A project that depicts the essential foundations of the current office philosophy and our vision of architectural and methodological approach facing the contemporary reality.
A project developed based on concepts that favour a social architecture, embodied in a seductive and plastic language, one that responds effectively to the functional requirements.
Scene 1 [A very well-matched elderly couple is discussing what trees to plant and where in the garden of their second residence, a small, detached, single-storey house with a barbecue as big as the living-dining room. It is winter and the house only has the roof framing in place.]
She: A cypress. That’s the tree that every Catalan farmhouse has at the entrance. Right here’s where we’re going to plant it. Then we’ll see it as soon as we come up from the street and it will welcome us.
The project comes out of the creation of a new topography that indexes and qualifies this zone of expansion in Torre Pacheco, on a plot of public equipments; a urban, cultural and enjoyment alternative for the citizens.
The folded plans of the area characterize the performance, in which both equipments that occupy the plot, Library and Park, adapt their relative position, creating new spaces protected from reception, communication and stay.